"Fuck fuck fuck." I mumble to myself as I fidget in my plane seat. Skyler and Rainbow go the seats in the row across from Alex and I.

"What's up with you? You've been swearing to yourself since we took off." Alex whispers to me.

"I'm nervous! The government wants to see ME personally Alex! The only reason they would want that is because of something related to magic and/or Rainbow! Nothing good could come from this!"

"Chill out dude. I've seen what you can do. You're a fighter, and you never quit. Whatever this is, you'll overcome it, I guarantee it."

"Still, just the fact that the government is getting back into my life again... it just makes me want to break something."

"We'll just see what happens when we get there." Alex leans back and closes his eyes as he puts on a pair of headphones. I pull out my cellphone, and begin to scan the internet for anything that might be helpful. I browse through what feels like hundreds of news articles, but nothing really comes up that would pertain to my current situation.

I open up my photo gallery and stare down at a picture of Star sleeping in Rainbow's lap. I let the memories and emotions flow through my veins to try to calm my nerves. I look over at Rainbow, who is talking to Skyler, and try my best to stay positive. I decide to lean back and take a nap. The stress leaves my body as I slowly drift off into another unseen realm.

"We're here dude." Alex shoves me awake as I feel the plane hitting the ground below us. I pear out the window to see we're currently landing. I check my watch and see it's only about noon. We left really early from Jacksonville, so it looks like we still have all of today to settle into the city. I don't have to be at the White House until tomorrow. I stretch my sore muscles, and let out a yawn as I glance over at Rainbow. Both girls are asleep, and Rainbow's wings are fully spread, almost suffocating Skyler with her feathers hovering just inches from her nose. Alex throws a wadded up paper ball at the two, and they jerk awake as it hits them.

"W-What?" Rainbow stutters, her voice cracking. "Oh Celestia, I've never slept while flying before." She says as she stretches her legs. She pulls her wings back down to her side, and almost hops out of her seat before Skyler stops her.

"Can't get up until we come to a stop. Rules are rules."

"Oh, okay."

Once the plane has stopped, we grab our bags and make our way into the busy airport. Rainbow gets stares from just about everybody here. Back in Jacksonville, nobody really stared at Rainbow anymore since they were pretty used to her walking and flying around. Here, however, nobody has seen Rainbow in person. This is a whole new experience for them.

"I don't like this." Rainbow says quietly as she presses up against my leg. We all try to walk around Rainbow, keeping her in the middle so it is harder for people to see her. We only brought backpacks since we would only be here for a couple of days. Rainbow doesn't wear clothes, so thankfully she didn't have to bring a bag. Because of this, we're able to skip over the baggage claim. We make our way through the airport, and while the other three are taking in the sights, I'm still contemplating just why we're here. It would have been nice if they gave me some more details in the letter, but I can see why they didn't. If they did, somebody else could have accidentally gotten the letter, and then a government secret would be revealed to someone who had no business knowing about it.

"Okay, the hotel isn't too far from here, so I think we should just walk. I only brought two thousand dollars to spend, so I'm not wasting it on an overpriced taxi just to walk down the street."

"Sounds like a plan. I can wait to just get in there and take a nap." Alex says as we start walking. I had already called ahead to a hotel, and they had some opens rooms we could use. I got the nicest one I could, and was glad to find it was completely open with no reservations.

"So, what are you guys doing tomorrow?" I ask the other three as we make our way down the busy sidewalk.

"I thought we would just explore the city, see the sights. Maybe we could go to the Lincoln Memorial." Skyler says as she reads through a brochure.

"What about you Rainbow?"

"What? Are you kidding? I'm going with you Matt." She says like she always thought she would be going with me. The letter asked for me, and only me, and I'd rather not drag her into this. I just wanted this to be a simple vacation for my friends while I did some business.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am. If you don't let me, I'll just follow you anyway." She says with a cocky grin. I clench my hands into fists as I know arguing with her is pointless.

"Fine, but if you get hurt or in trouble, I will never forgive you." I say as I pull out my phone to check where we are on the map. Just a couple more blocks until we reach the hotel.

Ten minutes of walking later, and we arrive at a large fancy structure. We look up at the massive building, and enter into the lobby. The woman behind the counter in the lobby gives us a smile and a wave as we walk in.

"Reservation for Matthew Green." I say as I lean my arms on the counter. She looks down at her computer before looking back up to me. She hands me an envelope with two room keys in it. I hand one to Alex, and thank the woman as we make our way over to the elevators. We have a room on the top floor, which is awesome since I love heights. When we get into the elevator, I press the top button, and the doors close before us. I sigh as I lean against the back of the elevator, and rub my eyes to try to relieve myself of some of my stress.

"You really need to calm down Matt. You're gonna kill yourself with stress." Skyler says as she puts a hand on my shoulder.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, I'm trying my best to stay positive. I'm just worried that something bad is gonna happen."

"Even if worse comes to worse, you can handle it Matt. We got your back." Alex says as he slaps a hand on my back.

"We won't leave your side, because you never left us." Rainbow says quietly as she hovers next to me. I look into her magenta eyes, and the next thing I know, our lips have met, and a good chunk of my stress is gone.

"Gees, get a room." Alex says with a chuckle. Rainbow blushes as she pulls back and gives us a nervous smile.

"Technically, we ARE getting a room." I joke, finally able to with some of my stress gone. Sadly, I can feel it slowly creeping back into my mind. When the doors open, we walk into an empty, clean hallway. Our room is about three doors down, and I stick the key into the electric lock. The door unlocks with a click, and I push it open to reveal a room that could rival my house. Two master bedrooms, and huge kitchen, three bathrooms, and a giant window that has a view of the entire city. Gotta thank Twilight for the bits, I would be broke without them.

"Ohhh shit! This is some Beverly Hills type shit!" Alex says as he tosses his backpack onto a couch across the room. We both head to our respective rooms to unpack the small amount of belongings we have. Alex and Skyler go to the left, and Rainbow and I take the room on the right. I take off my backpack, which is now feeling really heavy from carrying it all day, and place it down on the bed. I take out my clothes, and fold them into ta pile before placing them on the floor in the corner of the room. I pull out my phone charger and plug it into the wall. Might need that later. Rainbow bounces slightly on the bed, obviously getting bored already. She has the attention span of a goldfish I swear.

"So, what are we gonna do tonight?" Rainbow says as she continues to bounce ever so slightly.

"Hell if I know. I only planned out tomorrow, I have no idea what to do today." I look down at my watch to see that it is only one thirty in the afternoon. I look up at the large flat screen, and reach over and grab the remote. I flip on the TV, and the news comes on. I watch it for a second, something about the sky or something in China. I didn't really pay attention. I flip the channel over to a movie, and fall face-first on the bed. I sink into the mattress, and let out a muffled sigh. I need to do something fun to get the stress out of my system.

"We could go get lunch." Rainbow suggests.

"Not hungry." I mumble into the mattress.

"Go exploring?"

"Been here before, already explored."

"Go swimming in the hotel pool?"

"There's a pool?" I ask, pushing myself off the mattress and rolling onto my back.

"Yeah, there was a sign in the lobby. It said the pool was to the left of where we came in. I think it said indoors too."

"Hm... I guess we could do that. I did bring swim shorts out of habit, and I think Alex and Skyler did too. Yeah, I guess we should go swim for a while. Who knows, it could be fun." Rainbow perks up, a smile spreading across her muzzle as she sees that I've perked up some. "Okay, go into the living room or something while I change.

"I just had your baby and I can't be in the room while you change?"

"Whatever floats your boat." I say with a shrug as I fish my swim shorts out of the pile of clothes. I throw my shorts and boxers off before slipping into my swim suit. I tie the string in the front to tighten them, and turn around. Rainbow refuses to make eye contact with me, and her wings are completely extended. I roll my eyes and slap one of her wings as I walk by. She lets out a yelp, and I walk out into the living room. I peek into Alex and Skyler's room, and see them still unpacking.

"Wanna go swimming guys?" I ask as I poke my head into the room.

"Yeah! We'll change and be in there in a minute." Alex says. I nod and close their door to give them their privacy. I turn around to see Rainbow coming out of our room, trying to push her wings down with a hoof. I roll my eyes again, and grab both of her wings. I force them back down to her sides before going over and grabbing my phone and one of the room keys. I put them in my pockets, and walk on over to the kitchen. I get a glass out of a cabinet, and fill it with water from the sink. I take a long sip from the glass, and set it down on the counter.

"Okay, we're ready!" Skyler says happily as she walks into the living room. Alex follows behind her, both in bathing suits. We all walk over to the front door, and make our way downstairs to the pool.

Once we reach the lobby, we grab some towels from a basket before walking over to the pool. We open the door that leads to the facility, and the air becomes extremely humid around us. In front of us is a large pool and a hot tub over to the side. Thankfully, nobody else is in the pool, so that means we can be alone for a while. I don't like swimming with other people unless I know them, so this is a good thing.

Alex and I empty our pockets onto a round table in the corner, then drape our towels over some chairs. I run over to the deep side of the pool and drive head-first into the water. The feeling of floating overtakes my system, and I start making my way back up to the surface. I wipe the water out of my eyes, only to see a blue blur jumping in from behind me. Next thing I know, I'm underwater again, and something furry is clinging onto my back. I push my way back up and take in a deep breath. I see Alex and Skyler in the water laughing their asses off. I turn around to see a cyan pegasus on my back, laughing up a storm. I grab her off my back, and hold her tightly against my chest. She looks up at me with those big magenta eyes.

"You fucked up now." I press her face into my chest, and I take a deep breath before forcing myself under the water. Rainbow struggles around for a few seconds, not having taken a breath, and I come back up to the surface. She takes a deep breath, and punches my shoulder which actually kinda hurts.

"Not... cool..." She says through heavy breaths, though she's still smiling.

We spend the next three hours just fucking around in the pool, and thankfully nobody ever came in and interrupted us. When we get out, it is freezing in the room, so we head on over to the hot tub. We all get in, and Alex and I wrap our arm's around the shoulder's of our respective girlfriends. I mess around with Rainbow's tail under the water, and it twitches every time I touch it. She looks up at me, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. I realize my hand is pretty close to uh... her... y'know. I quickly move my hand up to her shoulder, and I swear I hear her whisper, "Darn it." Maybe it was just my imagination.

"Feeling better yet?" Alex says as he directs his line of vision over to me. I think back on my day, and realize that I actually haven't thought about going to the White House tomorrow at all.

"Actually, yeah, I am. You guys really know how to cheer me up. I have no idea how you do it." I say with a smile as I start playing with Rainbow's ear. I have this weird habit where I constantly need to be doing something with my hands, where it be twirling a pen, or tapping my finger on a table, or maybe even playing around with Rainbow's ear. Should probably try to get that under control.

"Glad we could help." Rainbow says as she pushes up into my side, her eyes closing and a smile forming in the process. Her wet fur practically sticks to my chest, but there's not much I can do about it, even though it irritates my skin a little. We sit in silence for a while, watching the sun set through the giant window that shows the city. The warm water helps some to calm my nerves, but I can't help but wonder what is going to happen tomorrow. I force the thoughts out of my head as I step out of the water. Everyone else follows behind me, and we head over to the towels. Just as we're starting to dry off, Rainbow shakes herself like a dog and gets all of us even more wet. We give her deadpan stares, having to start over on drying ourselves off.

"Oh, heh, sorry." Rainbow says with an embarrassed grin. Once I'm dried, I reach down and dry Rainbow off quickly. She protests of course, but I do it anyway.

Once we get up to the room, the sun is just starting to vanish over the horizon, and the sky is a reddish orange in color. We head to our own rooms, and change back into dry clothes. It feels good to be back into my warm clothes. I fall back on the bed, my arms and legs spread out like a giant X. The thoughts quickly flood back into my mind as I become bored quickly. I grunt, and throw myself off the bed. I throw on a zip-on jacket, and make my way out of the bedroom without zipping it up. The two sides of the jacket flap behind me as I walk, and I make my way to the front door, not even realizing I didn't tell Rainbow where I was going. I make my way out into the hallway, and find a fire exit. I open the door, thankfully not setting off an alarm, and look around the make sure I'm alone before making my way inside. I head up the stairs that apparently open up to the roof. I open the door, and I'm hit with a somewhat cool wind that whips my hair around wildly. The sky is pitch black, and dotted with millions of tiny stars. The city is lit up in front of me, and I feel like I could see for miles. I make my way over to the edge of the building, and prop my foot up on the ledge at the very edge of the building. I cross my arms on top of my knee, and look out over the city.

I can see the White House lit up in the distance, and I let out a sigh that is carried away by the rushing wind. My jacket flaps behind me violently as I stare at the scenery before me. I hear the somewhat muffled clip clop sound behind me that I know all too well.

"You followed me?" I ask, my eyes still locked on to the beautiful city before me.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. I just didn't see you behind me at all..." I look down at my sneakers and let out a sigh.

"Still worried about tomorrow?"

"What do you think? I don't even know why I'm here, and the only thing I DO know is that there is some kind of imminent crisis coming. Why would they need me to stop it? I can't even protect myself, how am I supposed to protect an entire country?"

"By being the same Matt that I fell in love with." Rainbow looks up at me with those big amazing eyes. "I know you Matt, better than you know yourself. Being scared of the unknown isn't going to get you anywhere. You taught me to face my fears when I thought I was on Earth alone. I want to teach you not to be scared of what you can't see. You need to stop Matt. I-"

I reach down and grab Rainbow mid-sentence. I bring her up to my face, and my lips meet hers as the wind whips through our hair and my clothes. Rainbow stops trying to talk, and her words turn into moans as we stand there on that roof. Rainbow pulls away for a second, looking me directly in the eyes.

"Y'know... I can help get rid of that stress..." She says as she places a leg on my stomach. I know all too well what she meant by that.

"I love Star, but I don't want another kid." I say awkwardly as I continue to hold her.

"That can only happen if I'm in heat. So... wanna?" I look out over the city one more time, then back at Rainbow. I give her a smile before carrying her back into the stairwell. Fuck my stress, I'm gonna spend the night with the girl I love.